This Is Not a Love Story: A Memoir

by Judy Brown

Overview

"An instant classic.... With echoes of Scout Finch, the feisty Menuchah guides readers on an unforgettable journey." --Leah Vincent, author of Cut Me Loose.

In this tender and hilarious memoir of an ultraorthodox girlhood, Judy Brown reveals a closed world, a loving family, a troubled brother, and the lore and faith that have sustained her people for generations.

But what happens when a young woman in this community starts asking questions: Why isn't she supposed to talk to gentiles? Why should a nice girl never wear denim? And if God performed all those miracles in the desert, why can't He cure her brother of his strange and frightening affliction?

With warmth, honesty, and razor-sharp humor, Judy Brown tells the story of a family whose faith and fierce love for each other pulls them through their darkest time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316400718
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	07/28/2015
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	174,065
File size:	614 KB

About the Author

Judy Brown wrote the controversial novel Hush--a finalist for the 2011 Sydney Taylor Award for outstanding book on the Jewish experience--under a pseudonym because of feared backlash from the
Chassidic world. Brown's identity has since been revealed and she has left Chassidism. She has been profiled in The New York Times Magazine and has written for the Huffington Post and the Jewish Daily Forward. She holds a master's in creative writing and lives in New York City.

What People are Saying About This

Nina Stibbe

I love books about families and this one is so warm and funny that I couldn't put it down. Judy Brown draws us into a closed world and shows how a family's love for each other transcended many obstacles. This Is Not a Love Story actually is one. --Nina Stibbe, author of Man at the Helm and Love, Nina

Leah Vincent

This extraordinary memoir is an instant classic as it explores some of the most important love stories never told. Judy Brown brilliantly melds frankness with compassion as she unfurls the secrets of her Chassidic childhood. With echoes of Scout Finch, the feisty Menuchah guides readers on an unforgettable journey of love, justice and compassion. --Leah Vincent, author of Cut Me Loose: Sin and Salvation After My Ultra-Orthodox Girlhood

Jennifer Traig

In this thoughtful and engaging memoir, Judy Brown offers a fascinating glimpse into a world, a family, a life. This is not a love story, but it is an enthralling one, and an important one. I was utterly absorbed. --Jennifer Traig, author of Devil in the Details and Well Enough Alone

Editorial Reviews

"I love books about families and this one is so warm and funny that I couldn't put it down....This Is Not a Love Story actually is one."—Nina Stibbe, author of Man at the Helm and Love, Nina

"An instant classic....With echoes of Scout Finch, the feisty Menuchah guides readers on an unforgettable journey of love, justice and compassion."—-Leah Vincent, author of Cut Me Loose: Sin and Salvation After My Ultra-Orthodox Girlhood

"In this thoughtful and engaging memoir, Judy Brown offers a fascinating glimpse into a world, a family, a life....I was utterly absorbed."—Jennifer Traig, author of Devil in the Details and Well Enough Alone

"Vividly capturing the voice of her younger self, Brown portrays an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community marked by piety, prejudice, and superstition, and her loving family roiled by the mystifying, often terrifying, affliction of her younger brother.... A tender story gently told."—-Kirkus Reviews

"An unforgettable portrait of anguish and hope."—People

"A riveting examination of family and love....This book is indeed a love story in many ways."
—Sarah Rachel Egelman, Book Reporter

"This most certainly is a love story. It's also a coming-of-age story, a family's story, and a story of struggling through the unknown.... She tells her story with the earnestness, naivete, humor, and gentleness of a sheltered eight-year-old.... Readers will be absorbed and enveloped by this family and the descriptive flow of the story."—Renita Last, Jewish Book Council

From the Publisher

2015-03-15
A child's perspective on a family's ordeal. In her revealing nonfiction debut, Brown, who published a young adult novel, Hush (2010), under the pseudonym Eishes Chayil, recounts growing up Hassidic in Brooklyn, New York, in the 1980s and '90s. Vividly capturing the voice of her younger self, she portrays an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community marked by piety, prejudice, and superstition and her loving family roiled by the mystifying, often terrifying, affliction of her younger brother, Nachum. "When I tried to share with him, he blinked, flailed his hands, and sometimes gave a piercing shriek," Brown recalls, "and I didn't want to play with him anymore." The author wasn't satisfied when adults told her that everything—including Nachum's madness—was part of "God's Grand Master Plan"; or that Nachum was crazy because her mother didn't nurse him; or he must have been dropped on his head. Talmudic lore held that an angel, after imbuing an unborn child's soul with holy knowledge, strikes him on the upper lip to erase that memory. "But sometimes," Brown was told, "the angel strikes the upper lip too hard," making it impossible for the child to remember anything, "even how to speak, how to say simple words. Such a child is born mad, like my brother." The author felt cursed by her brother's existence—not only the havoc he wreaked in the family, but because she believed that having a defective brother lessened a matchmaker's chances of finding her a husband. Only her mother was convinced that Nachum could be helped. She took him to Israel, going from doctor to doctor in search of a diagnosis. The results were no more satisfying than the story of the angel: ADHD, psychosis, and chemical imbalance. Finally, one doctor diagnosed autism. Nachum improved dramatically after a few years in a special school, becoming, at last, the brother whom Brown could love. A tender story gently told.

Kirkus Reviews